11

Click here to load reader

Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Proceedings of Informing Science & IT Education Conference (InSITE) 2015 Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy among health sciences professionals: A case study of GGS Med-ical College, Faridkot, Punjab, India. Proceedings of Informing Science & IT Education Conference (InSITE) 2015, 531-541. Retrieved from http://Proceedings.InformingScience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar1648.pdf

Editor: Eli Cohen

Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences Professionals: A Case Study of GGS Medical College,

Faridkot, Punjab, India

Iqbal Singh Brar Malout Institute of Management and Information Technology,

Malout, Punjab, India

[email protected]

Abstract This paper is basically a case study and an attempt has been made to highlight the information literacy skills among the health science professionals i.e. teachers and postgraduate students of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (constitute college of Baba Farid University of Health Sci-ences), Faridkot. The information literacy has various parts such as Computer Literacy, Library Literacy, Media Literacy, Network Literacy and Digital Literacy. The present study is only fo-cused on the assessment of digital information literacy among the health sciences professionals within the scope of the study. The data for the study was collected by using a questionnaire and interviews were also conducted to fill up the gap of the area in health domain special reference to Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot.

Keywords: Information Literacy, Digital Information Literacy, Health Science Professionals

Introduction Information is a vital aspect of modern society. It is an instant power and tool to decision making, lifelong learning and self actualization to transform information into knowledge and vice-versa. The quality of decisions depends upon the availability of quality information.

In this information age, the volume of information and complexity of the available information are increasing significantly. It is emphasis on acquiring of basic knowledge and skills to deal ef-fectively with information whether in print or digital form. The knowledge and skill of infor-mation sources in one’s subject area, the ability to construct effective search strategies, the ability to critically appraise information sources and the ability to use these sources appropriately is called information literacy. It is the new face of user education programmes.

In broader context, information literates have been described as those who know when they need information, and are then able to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively use the infor-mation to address and help to resolve personal, job-related, or broader social issues and problems.

Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is per-missible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact [email protected] to request redistribution permission.

Page 2: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Digital Information Literacy

532

Digital Information Literacy: Concepts and Current Trends Qwusu-Ansah (2005) points out that the term information literacy was first used by Paul Zurkow-ski, President of the Information Industry Association in 1974. Zurkowski described the infor-mation literate individuals as people trained in the application of information resources to their work. During the 1980s, the term gradually started to replace the concepts of user education and library skills.

In his comprehensive paper “Information and digital literacies: a review of concepts”, Bawden identifies various terms related to information literacy which have been in the literature. These include:

- Information Literacy;

- Computer Literacy;

- Information Technology;

- Library Literacy;

- Media Literacy;

- Network Literacy;

- Digital Literacy.

This study is focused on the last point of Bawden i.e. Digital Literacy. The investigator tried to investigates the digital information literacy among the health sciences professionals i.e. teachers and students within the scope of the study. Glister (1997) defines digital literacy as, “set of skills to access the Internet; find, manage and edit digital information; join in communications; and otherwise engage with an online information and communication network. In simple terms, digi-tal literacy is the ability to properly use and evaluate digital resources, tools and services and ap-ply it to their lifelong learning process.” The most essential aspect of digital literacy is the ability to make informed judgments about what is found online, for unlike conventional media, much digital information is unfiltered by editors and open to the contribution of all.

In other words, digital literate people are able to:

- Determine the extent of digital information needed;

- Access the needed digital information effectively and efficiently;

- Evaluate digital information sources and services critically;

- Incorporate selected digital information into one’s knowledge base;

- Use of digital information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose; and

- Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of digital information access and use of this information ethically and legally.

Digital Information Literacy is a major component of information literacy. It helps users cope with information from a variety of electronic formats and provides techniques and methods of collecting digital resources. It creates awareness of issues like copyright and intellectual property rights in an electronic environment.

Information is available from many sources and in many formats, such as printed text, television, videos, library databases, web sites, and more. To be “information literate” one needs to know why, when, and how to use all of these tools and think critically about the information they pro-vide. One can’t become information literate overnight. His abilities will improve over time as he gains expertise in the topics he chooses to investigate and as he practice searching for, selecting,

Page 3: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Brar

533

and evaluating the information and ideas he encounter. In nutshell information literate students are supposed to:

- Be competent, independent learners;

- Actively engage in the world of ideas;

- Confidently solve problems;

- Know what the relevant information is;

- Use technological tools to access information and communicate;

- Operate comfortably in situations where there are multiple answers or no an-swers;

- Have high standards for their work and use information ethically;

- Create quality products.

Problem Statement In today’s modern society technological advancement opens gateways of very vast availability of information through digital resources but question arise are we aware of all the digital resources available to collect, organize and analyze the information? The answer to the above mention question is Digital Information Literacy. So, this paper investigates the digital information litera-cy level of health sciences professionals.

Scope of the Study The present study covers the Digital Information Literacy (DIL) level of health sciences profes-sionals of GGS Medical College (constitute college of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences), Faridkot.

Objectives of the Study 1. To recognize the e- resources needed by health sciences professionals and purpose for the

use.

2. To know the I.T. Skills that are needed for collecting, organizing and analyzing the digi-tal information among health sciences professionals.

3. To investigate the searching tools and evaluation criteria used for e-resources by the health sciences professionals.

Review of Literature Powell and Case-Smith (2003) conducted a study to assess the information seeking skills of Ohio State University’s Occupational Therapy graduates. The results of the study revealed that a ma-jority of the respondents prefer to use information resources that are readily available to them, such as advice from their colleagues or supervisors (79%) and the Internet (69%), rather than the evidence available in the journal literature.

Durando and Oakley (2005) described in his paper on developing information literacy skills in nursing and rehabilitation therapy students for Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The short term goal of these programs is to teach undergraduate students advanced search strategy skills and critical appraisal techniques that will enable them to explore the implications of their literature findings.

Page 4: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Digital Information Literacy

534

Maharana and Mishra (2007) conducted a survey of digital information literacy of faculty at Sambalpur University. The response rate was 66.7%. The study revealed that demand for e-resources mainly e-journals is on the top with 82.86% responses. A majority of the respondents i.e. 92.8% used the e-resources to keep their knowledge up-to-date. The study also revealed that authenticity and reliability are the most important parameters for evaluation of online infor-mation; and all the respondents expressed the wish that the library should take initiative in pro-moting information literacy at the university level.

Karisiddappa and Rajgoli (2008) conducted a survey in search of information literacy pro-grammes conducted in selected institutions at Bangalore. The study revealed that more than 43% of the libraries are conducting information literacy programmes for the new users. The majority of the libraries are conducting IL programmes on searching techniques and use of electronic in-formation with response rate of 78.26%. The study also revealed that 95.65% of the respondents were agreed that information literacy programmes are helpful today as much of the information is available in electronic formats.

Choudhury and Sethi (2009) conducted an analytical study on computer literacy of library profes-sionals in the university libraries in Orissa. The study focused on the self efficacy in the context of information literacy. The study was conducted to identify the level of skill and efficacy pre-sented by the library professionals of university libraries of Orissa, India. The study concluded that the library professionals are in the early stages of full-grown information literacy programme.

The review of literature reveals that there is a large amount of literature available in the shape of survey and case studies to judge the various professionals, but no in depth study has been done on the health science professionals. The present study is an attempt to clearly exhibit the status of information literacy among the health sciences teachers and postgraduate students of GGS Medi-cal College (constitute college of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences), Faridkot.

Research Methodology The investigator decided to use the survey method for the purpose of this study as a means to col-lect data. A survey instrument was developed in the form of a questionnaire (see the Appendix) and interviews were also conducted to fill up the gap if any. The random method was used to col-lect the data. The number of postgraduate students admitted at GGS Medical College was 50 and teachers were 100. A sample of 50% was considered for students (25) and teachers (50) to pro-vide satisfactory results. The investigator received 50 questionnaires back with a response rate of 66.66%. The respondent’s answers were entered into an SPSS database and results were comput-ed.

Data Analysis and Results

IT Skills of the Respondents The respondents were asked to indicate their Information Technology (IT) skills, which is the basic requirement to be a digital information literate person. The results of Table 1 shows that a majority of the respondents have knowledge of Internet applications i.e. 42(84%), and knowledge of MS-Office and Desktop Publishing Tools come on the second position with 29(58%) respons-es. 25(50%) respondents have knowledge of multimedia applications and only 3(6%) have knowledge computer programming language.

Page 5: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Brar

535

Table 1: IT Skills of the Respondents

Kind of IT Skills Yes No

Internet 42

(84%)

8

(16%)

MS-Office and Desktop Publishing Tools (DTP) 29

(58%)

21

(42%)

Multimedia Applications (Audio, Video and Audio-Visual)

25

(50%)

25

(50%)

Programming Languages 3

(6%)

47

(94%)

Types of Electronic Information Resources The respondents were asked to indicate the electronic information sources needed by them for their academic pursuits. Table 2 exhibits that a majority of the respondents i.e. 41(82%) indicated that they required e-journals to up-to-date for their knowledge. E-articles and e-theses & disserta-tions, however, are needed by 32(64%) and 17(34%) respondents respectively. The need for other sources of e-information such as e-databases, and e-books is not significant.

Table 2: Types of E-Information Resources

Type of E-resources Yes No

E-journals 41

(82%)

9

(18%)

E-articles 32

(64%)

18

(36%)

E-books 5

(10%)

45

(90%)

E-databases 6

(12%)

44

(88%)

E-theses and dissertations 17

(34%)

33

(66%)

Purpose of Using E-resources Table 3 indicates the purpose of using electronic information resources. A majority of the re-spondents i.e. 47(94%) stated that they need electronic resources for the purpose of enhancement in their present status of knowledge. 39(78%) respondents required e-resources to support their research work, followed by 30(60%) for preparing their assignments and for writing papers for publication. 26(52%) indicated that they needed e-resources to prepare their course material for teaching and learning, followed by 18(36%) to attend or organize seminars/ workshops.

Page 6: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Digital Information Literacy

536

Table 3: Purpose for Using E-resources

Purpose of Using Electronic-information Resources Yes No

To update their knowledge 47

(94%)

03

(6%)

To support research 39

(78%)

11

(22%)

To prepare course material for teaching and learning 26

(52%)

24

(48%)

To attend or organize seminars/ workshops 18

(36%)

32

(64%)

To write papers or assignments 30

(60%)

20

(40%)

Use of Internet Searching Tools The electronic information sources are generally access by using of various searching tools avail-able on the Internet. Table 4 depicts that 49(98%) respondents use the Internet search engines for searching any resource from the Internet. 23(46%) use the bibliographical databases like web OPAC etc. to find the resources, followed by 19(38%) respondents who use the digital libraries for searching the information from the Internet. 13(26%) respondents preferred to search through subject gateways and only meager number of the respondents i.e. 4(8%) are using the websites to find any information from the Internet.

Table 4: Use of Internet Searching Tools

Types of Internet Searching Tools Yes No

Search Engines 49

(98%)

1

(2%)

Subject Gateways (In their respected subject area) 13

(26%)

37

(74%)

Online Bibliographic Databases 23

(46%)

27

(54%)

Digital Libraries 19

(38%)

31

(62%)

Websites 4

(8%)

46

(92%)

Evaluation of Internet Resources Table 5 exhibits the evaluation parameters used by the respondents for evaluating the electronic information resources. 40(80%) respondents consider “Authenticity” as the most important crite-

Page 7: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Brar

537

ria for evaluation, followed by “Reliability” with 36(72%) respondents. Other parameters for evaluation of Internet resources are used by the respondents in range of 14% to 30% respectively.

Table 5: Evaluation of Resources

Evaluation Parameters of Internet Resources Yes No

Authenticity 40

(80%)

10

(20%)

Reliability 36

(72%)

14

(28%)

Usability 15

(30%)

35

(70%)

Coverage 12

(24%)

38

(76%)

Comprehensive 10

(20%)

40

(80%)

Accessibility 7

(14%)

43

(86%)

Major Findings • A majority of the respondents i.e. 84% have indicated that they have knowledge of Inter-

net applications, followed by knowledge of MS-Office and Desktop Publishing Tools with 58% responses.

• Maximum number of health science professionals who responded to the survey expressed their need for electronic information resources and preferred e-journals as most favorable e-resource with 41(82%) respondents.

• A majority of the health science professionals under survey i.e. 94% indicated that they need electronic resources for the purpose to update their knowledge in their respective subject area and 39(78%) required e-resources to support their research work.

• Search engines are the most frequently used searching tool on the web for finding the in-formation from the Internet with 49(98%) respondents.

• Authenticity and reliability are the most important parameters used by the respondents for evaluation of electronic information sources with 80% and 72% responses respectively.

• All the respondents expressed their need that the university library & informatics division should take initiative to start a course on “Information and Research Skills” and it should be included in the postgraduate courses.

Suggestions On the basis of the findings of the study, the investigator set the following suggestions:

• The health science teachers of the university and its constituent colleges should be trained how to search/ browse for e-resources, its evaluation etc.

Page 8: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Digital Information Literacy

538

• The university libraries and information centres should start information literacy pro-grammes (workshop, seminar etc.) to educate the health sciences professionals specially the teachers and postgraduate students.

• The information and research skill course should be included in the curriculum of health sciences post-graduate courses of the university.

Conclusion As off high rate of technological advancement and that too with high pace, the teaching commu-nity and resources found themselves in an imbalance state when it comes to availability of infor-mation. So, in this situation it is very important that educational institutes should play a vital role in spreading the knowledge of these digital information resources among health sciences profes-sionals.

References Azmi, H. (2001). Teaching information literacy skills: A case study of the QU core program in Qatar Uni-

versity (pp 145-164.). New York: Wiley.

Bawden, D. (2001). Information and digital literacies: A review of concepts. Journal of Documentation, 57(2), 218-259.

Choudnury, B. K., & Sethi, B. B. (2009). Computer literacy of library professionals in the university librar-ies of Orissa. IASLIC Bulletin. 54(1), 15-30.

Durando, P., & Oakley, P. (2008). Developing information literacy skills in nursing and rehabilitation therapy students. Retrieved August 23, 2008, from Web site: http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.caljchlaljchla26/05-007.pdf

Karisiddappa, C. R., & Rajgoli, I. U. (2008). In search of information literacy programmes and practices: Survey of selected institutions at Bangalore. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology. 28(2), 28-38.

Maharana, B. & Mishra, C. (2007). A survey of digital information literacy of faculty at Sambalpur Univer-sity. Library Philosophy and Practice.

Powell, C. A., & Case-Smith, J. (2003). Information literacy skills of occupational therapy graduates: A survey of learning outcomes. Journal of Medical Library Association. 9(14), 468-477.

Quwsu-Anash, E. K. (2005). Debating definitions of information literacy: Enough is enough. Library Re-view, 54(6), 266-274.

Page 9: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Brar

539

Appendix Questionnaire

(Please tick at the appropriate place)

Name : ____________________________________________

Designation : ____________________________________________

Age : 21-25 26-30 31-35 41-45

More than 46

Department : ____________________________________________

1. Do you have knowledge of computer? Yes No

A. IT Skills

(Please indicate your IT skills)

Kind of IT Skills Yes No

Internet

MS-Office and Desktop Publishing Tools (DTP)

Multimedia Applications

Programming Languages

B. Types of Electronic Information Resources

(Please indicate the e-resources needed by you)

Type of E-resources Yes No

E-journals

E-articles

E-books

Page 10: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Digital Information Literacy

540

E-databases

E-theses and dissertations

C. Purpose of Using E-resources

(Please indicate the purpose of using e-resources)

Purpose of Using Electronic-information Resources Yes No

To update their knowledge

To support research

To prepare course material for teaching and learning

To attend or organize seminars/ workshops

To write papers or assignments

D. Use of Internet Searching Tools

(Please indicate the searching tools used for finding e-resources)

Types of Internet Searching Tools Yes No

Search Engines

Subject Gateways

Online Bibliographic Databases

Digital Libraries

Websites

E. Evaluation of Internet Resources

(Please indicate the evaluation criteria used for evaluation of e-resources)

Evaluation Parameters of Internet Resources Yes No

Authenticity

Reliability

Usability

Coverage

Comprehensive

Accessibility

F. Any other information and suggestions

Page 11: Digital Information Literacy among Health Sciences ...proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2015/InSITE15p531-541Brar... · Cite as: Brar, I. S. (2015). Digital information literacy

Brar

541

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Signature

Thanking you for your time and kind cooperation.

Biography Dr. Iqbal Singh Brar (Ph.D. in Library and Information Science) is Librarian (Selection Grade) of Malout Institute of Management & In-formation Technology, Malout, Punjab, India. He has more than 22 years work experience in librarianship. He has attended more than 50 conferences. He has published 6 books and more than 30 research pa-pers in national and international journals and proceedings and 3 chap-ters in books.